In article ,
"JRJohnson" wrote:

Unfortunately, this wood is so soft and punky that I cannot turn it. I
can tear chunks out of it with my bare hands. If it weren't so dabburned
beautiful, I would just toss it and not even consider turning it but......
James J

There's a company in Oregon called Specialty Polymers that has developed
a process they call WoodSure - impregnating wood with an acrylic
polymer. I've heard two demos by one of the lead research guys working
for the company as well as seeing and hearing results of local turners
who have taken advantage of the process. You can take the punky-est wood
and it will harden it up through and through - 100% penetration. The
process removes all moisture and replaces it with acrylic - done under
vacuum and pressure in a sealed chamber. You can choose among a number
of colors or natural.

They charge by the pound as I recall and the guy to contact is Bob
McSween, , 800-770-7523.

The following was printed in our chapter newsletter (editor Fred Kline):
Many thanks to our March demonstrator Bob McSween from Woodsure
in Woodburn, Bob captivated us all with some very beautiful pieces of
wood as well as many turned specimens of wood that has been stabilized
and sometimes colored with acrylic. This unique process will enable us
to take an otherwise useless piece of punky wood and turn it into a one
of a kind masterpiece, this process opens the door to many possibilities
to woodturning or just woodworking in general. Hopefully by now many
of you have taken Bob up on his generous offer to treat a few pieces free of
charge to the club members. Well be looking to future show & tells for some
of your completed pieces.

I had three chunks done but haven't finished any as yet. Two are some
spalted birch that was tearing out something awful when attempting to
make some Osolnik style candlesticks. When I got the impregnated pieces
back I rough turned them just to see what it was like - very nice and
solid - though they outgas the polymer smell for about 30 days.

Here's a link to someone who appears to be marketing WoodSure but I'm
not familiar with them though the wood samples and description look and
sound like what Bob showed and said:
http://tkandj.com/id3.html

Here's the Specialty Polymers site:
http://www.specpoly.com/index.html

As was mentioned at the two demos and in subsequent conversations - it's
not for all woods - due to the cost to process - but when you have
something really special that you'd really like to use then it's a great
solution.